A New Orleans law firm comptroller accused of stealing more than $2 million and spending it on such things as vacations, clothes and Saints tickets was sentenced Friday (March 1) to three years in prison, the North Shore district attorney’s office said.

Latanya N. Arnold, 49, of Slidell helped herself to the law firm’s money, also using it to pay for beauty and salon services, airline tickets, school tuition and lease payments on a Mercedes-Benz, the DA’s office said in a news release. While the St. Tammany DA’s office did not name the law firm, Arnold had previously been arrested in New Orleans and was reported to have worked for the law firm of Bernard “Bunny” Charbonnet Jr.

Arnold was sentenced Friday for theft over $25,000, a charge she had pleaded guilty to last week. She has paid back $200,000 in restitution, the release said.

State district Judge Scott Gardner sentenced Arnold to 10 years for the crime, but he suspended seven of those years. He ordered her to pay the remaining restitution once she is released from prison.

Prosecutors in Orleans Parish decided not to prosecute similar charges in March 2018, according to online court records.

Between 2008 and 2017, Arnold wrote checks to herself and family members and made personal purchases with law firm’s money, the St. Tammany DA’s office said. The scheme came to light in May 2017, when another employee at the firm discovered an unauthorized $25,000 withdrawal from one of the law firm’s accounts and learned the funds were used to pay the bail for one of Arnold’s family members.

The firm’s owner then ordered an audit of all of its bank accounts.

The victim testified Friday that the theft not only devastated the financial stability of his business but that it shattered his trust in the humanity of people, the news release said.

Arnold, now confined to a wheelchair because of a severe health condition, apologized in court to the victim for stealing his money and for violating his trust, according to the news release.

Her husband, Raymond E. Arnold, 50, also of Slidell, faces charges of theft over $25,000 and money laundering and is scheduled for pre-trial hearings March 11.